Jaffrey/Rindge

Conant club targets recycling

Environmental group shares its vision for sustainability with School Board

Conant High School students in the Environmental Club ask Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board members on Monday night for a district-wide recycling program. Purchase photo reprints at Photo Finder »

Conant High School students in the Environmental Club ask Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board members on Monday night for a district-wide recycling program. Purchase photo reprints at Photo Finder »

Conant High School students in the Environmental Club ask Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board members on Monday night for a district-wide recycling program. Purchase photo reprints at Photo Finder »

Conant High School students in the Environmental Club ask Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board members on Monday night for a district-wide recycling program. Purchase photo reprints at Photo Finder »

Conant High School students in the Environmental Club ask Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board members on Monday night for a district-wide recycling program. Purchase photo reprints at Photo Finder »

Conant High School students in the Environmental Club ask Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board members on Monday night for a district-wide recycling program. Purchase photo reprints at Photo Finder »

Conant High School students in the Environmental Club ask Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board members on Monday night for a district-wide recycling program. Purchase photo reprints at Photo Finder »

Conant High School students in the Environmental Club ask Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board members on Monday night for a district-wide recycling program. Purchase photo reprints at Photo Finder »

The Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District School Board meeting on Monday evening had some greener, though no less savvy, attendees.

The Conant High School Environmental Club gave a presentation to School Board members on the work they have been doing, the unsustainable practices they’ve observed in the school district, and the changes they want to see.

The Environmental Club is a relatively new entity at Conant, started this year by two senior students, Jackie Lundsted and Allina Bennett. Lundsted and Bennett approached their senior civics class teacher, Seth Farmer, for help with the club. “Mr. Farmer was one of the only teachers who regularly recycled in his room,” Bennett said at the meeting.

With help from the 11 additional students who joined the group, the Environmental Club has been working on accomplishing the goals listed in its mission statement: creating a more sustainable community, raising awareness, and reducing their footprint on the Earth. Their first task has been addressing one of the school district’s most egregious, and relatively easy-to-solve, issues: getting the school district to follow the same recycling requirements as its towns.

“We want to create a policy that is similar to the one required at home,” said Lundsted.

The Environmental Club pointed out the usefulness of a recycling program by showing photos of members collecting, sorting, and recycling items out of the school’s trash cans that amounted to about 80 pounds of recyclables per week. “Basically what everyone is saying here is that we need a policy change,” said senior Shannia Aho, another club member.

The group would like to have a district-wide recycling system so that the group can move on to other projects, like a school garden and a composting system, and so that Farmer can have his classroom back. For the last four months, Farmer has been allowing the club to store the collected items there before they’re taken to be recycled.

After a short field trip to Farmer’s classroom on Monday night, the School Board saw first hand all the recyclable materials, and what needed to be done. School Board Chairman Daniel Whitney promised the group they would have a more concrete plan to address the recycling issue by February.